Sensitive information missing

It's happened again. Computers and disk drives containing sensitive information have been reported missing at a national laboratory, and those represent just part of $2.2 million dollars in lost items reported by DOE's Inspector General. The Associated Press story, published May 6 in the Washington Post, says none of the equipment was used to store classified information. The losses occurred at the Idaho National Laboratory, which conducts nuclear research and stores radioactive waste.

For security's sake

They have been transferred to meaningless jobs, stripped of their security clearances, fired, and shunned by colleagues and friends. They are members of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition, a newly formed alliance of whistleblowers pressing for government reform. Among them is Steve Jenkins, a former intelligence analyst who disclosed illegal wire-tapping. As reported in the Tampa Tribune, Jenkins' supervisors at the National Guard Intelligence Center responded by turning over his duties to less qualified staff - potentially putting overseas soldiers at risk.

Jenkin's experience is not as rare as one one would hope. Every day, the safety of Americans is being compromised by government managers more interested in silencing dissent than in protecting the nation. Take, for example, Linda Lewis, a USDA emergency programs analyst who reported inadequacies in preparedness for nuclear power and chemical weapons emergencies. Subsequently, the agency revoked her security clearance, threatened to fire her, and placed her on administrative leave, without explanation. For three years, she remained on leave, at taxpayer expense, even as supervisors admitted being short handed; and, even as terrorists gathered information for potential WMD attacks.

More than a year after the September 11 attacks, USDA finally withdrew its proposal of termination and returned Lewis to active duty. The agency has never provided an explanation.

Pork alert

The organization, Citizens Against GovernmentWaste (CAGW), issed a news release, May4, stating that it has raised its Pork Advisory Level to "High." CAGW's 2005 Congressional Pig Book claimed a 306 percent increase in pork-barrel spending for the previous year. The organization is particularly concerned that a moratorium on earmarks may be rescinded even as the budget is being developed for the Department of Homeland Security. Said a CAGW spokesperson, "Lobbyists are licking their chops at a potential free-for-all for federal cash."

NSA fires whistleblower after Capitol Hill appearance

Village Voice reports today that yet another patriotic national security whistleblower has been forced out of public service, this time at the National Security Agency (NSA), an ultra-secret intelligence agency located near Washington, D.C.

Days ago, Russ Tice, an NSA intelligence analyst, and other members of the newly formed National Security Whistleblowers Coalition appeared on Capitol Hill to press Congress for better whistleblower protections. Now, NSA wants him out by May 16, writes VV.

Patriotic employees, like Tice, who hold security clearances are highly vulnerable to retaliation. Agency officials revoke whistleblowers' clearances, safe in the knowledge that federal workers have little recourse. Managers claim "flexibility" in making such decisions is needed in the interests of national security. They seldom point out that contractor employees - often working side by side with civil servants - have much stronger appeal rights.

After he asked the agency to investigate activities of an employee he suspected of espionage, Tice began a journey into a kafkaesque world familiar to many other federal whistleblowers. He was given a psychological evaluation, put on administrative leave and removed from his normal duties. Tice, a 20-year veteran intelligence analyst, was assigned to warehouse and motor pool duties. We can only guess how much pleasure this gave the terrorists no longer being tracked by Tice or any of the 24 other NSA employees reportedly subjected to retaliation.

Incredibly, those working hardest to protect Americans from terrorism are themselves being terrorized for reporting vulnerabilities. Will it take another tragedy like 9/11 for Congress to pass legislation holding agency officials accountable for blocking needed reforms? Deep Harm urges its readers to write their Congressional representatives to protest the mistreatment of Russ Tice and other brave whistleblowers. And, please pass this message along.

In case of nuclear attack, citizens left to own devices

The Washington Post reported today what many homeland security planners have long known, but have not publicized: In the event of a nuclear strike, citizens will be largely on their own.

In severely damaged areas, citizens will need to evacuate themselves to safe areas where medical assistance would be available. In most cases, they will have to walk, possibly for long distances, despite injuries that could be severe.

Long before that, citizens will need to educate themselves on ways to lessen their exposure to radiation and other potential impacts of a nuclear detonation. There, too, they are on their own, because federal agencies have provided little information that would be useful to citizens in protecting themselves in a nuclear disaster.

The Post based its story on "two closely held government reports," including one by the White House's Homeland Security Council (HSC), and the other by the Energy Department. The documents describe the consequences of a 10-kiloton bomb attack on Washington, D.C.

Some of the above information has been publicly available since January - hiding in plain sight in the National Response Plan. However, only experts, knowledgeable of the effects of a nuclear blast, would likely have understood the import of its vague references.

Homeland security failures: persistent, but avoidable

Despite billions spent on homeland security since September 2001 and creation of the behemoth Homeland Security Agency, glaring gaps still exist in the nation's protective shield. Many Americans are asking, "Why?"

The answer is well known to federal government whistleblowers. Problems persist because program managers are not penalized for gross incompetence, neglect and corruption. They persist because employees who offer suggestions for protecting the nation from terrorists themselves become targets - of retaliation from their own supervisors. Abused, fired, and blacklisted from re-employment, their lives are ruined and serve as a warning to others to keep silent. Meanwhile, supervisors who engage in misconduct typically receive cash awards and promotions.

The situation has become so alarming that 53 national security whistleblowers have formed a coalition to press for government reforms. Led by FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition took their case last Thursday to Capitol Hill. There, they spent the day talking to Senate and House staff members about the need for new laws that would hold agency officials personally accountable for misconduct and shield conscientious employees from retaliation.

Is anyone listening? So, far, not many. But, today's Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that a few members of Congress, from both parties, heard the message and have begun taking action. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass) are leading an effort to pass new legislation, responsive to the whistleblowers' concerns.

Rep. Markey told the Tribune-Review, "It's preposterous that Congress, in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, gave better whistleblower protections to employees of Enron or WorldCom who report accounting fraud than it gives to FBI employees, TSA baggage screeners or nuclear reactor security guards who report serious risks to homeland and national security."

We at Deep Harm couldn't have said it better.